[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4347 Introduced in House (IH)]
113th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4347
To require the Secretary of State to provide an annual report to
Congress regarding United States Government efforts to survey and
secure the return, protection, and restoration of stolen, confiscated,
or otherwise unreturned Christian properties in the Republic of Turkey
and in those areas currently occupied by the Turkish military in
northern Cyprus.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 28, 2014
Mr. Royce (for himself and Mr. Engel) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of State to provide an annual report to
Congress regarding United States Government efforts to survey and
secure the return, protection, and restoration of stolen, confiscated,
or otherwise unreturned Christian properties in the Republic of Turkey
and in those areas currently occupied by the Turkish military in
northern Cyprus.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Turkey Christian Churches
Accountability Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) United States diplomatic leadership contributes
meaningfully and materially to the protection internationally
of religious minorities and their faith-based practices and
places of worship.
(2) The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 states
that ``It shall be the policy of the United States to condemn
violations of religious freedom, and to promote, and to assist
other governments in the promotion of, the fundamental right to
freedom of religion.''.
(3) The House of Representatives, when it adopted House
Resolution 306 on December 13, 2011, called on the Secretary of
State, in all official contacts with Turkish leaders, to urge
Turkey to ``allow the rightful church and lay owners of
Christian church properties, without hindrance or restriction,
to organize and administer prayer services, religious
education, clerical training, appointments, and succession'',
and to ``return to their rightful owners all Christian churches
and other places of worship, monasteries, schools, hospitals,
monuments, relics, holy sites, and other religious properties,
including movable properties, such as artwork, manuscripts,
vestments, vessels, and other artifacts''.
(4) On September 28, 2010, the House of Representatives
adopted House Resolution 1631, calling for the protection of
religious sites and artifacts, as well as for general respect
for religious freedom in Turkish-occupied areas of northern
Cyprus.
(5) Christian churches and communities in the Republic of
Turkey and in the occupied areas of Cyprus continue to be
prevented from fully practicing their faith and face serious
obstacles to reestablishing full legal, administrative, and
operational control over stolen, expropriated, confiscated, or
otherwise unreturned churches and other religious properties
and sites.
(6) In many cases the rightful Christian church
authorities, including relevant Holy Sees located outside
Turkey and Turkish-occupied territories, are obstructed from
safeguarding, repairing, or otherwise caring for their holy
sites upon their ancient homelands, because the properties have
been destroyed, expropriated, converted into mosques, storage
facilities, or museums, or subjected to deliberate neglect.
(7) While the Turkish Government has made efforts in recent
years to address these issues and to return some church
properties, much more must be done to rectify the situation of
Christian communities in these areas, as a vast majority of
Christian holy sites continue to be held by the Turkish
Government or by third parties.
(8) On April 24, 2013, Catholicos Karekin II and Catholicos
Aram I, spiritual leaders of the millions of Christian Armenian
faithful in Armenia and the Diaspora, noted that Turkey
continued to unjustly ``[retain] confiscated church estates and
properties, and religious and cultural treasures of the
Armenian people'', and called on Turkey ``[t]o immediately
return the Armenian churches, monasteries, church properties,
and spiritual and cultural treasures, to the Armenian people as
their rightful owner''.
(9) The boundaries of Turkey encompass significant historic
Christian lands, including the biblical lands of Armenia
(present-day Anatolia), home to many of early Christianity's
pivotal events and holy sites, such as Mount Ararat, the
location cited in the Bible as the landing place of Noah's Ark.
(10) These ancient territories were for thousands of years
home to a large, indigenous Christian population, but, because
of years of repressive Turkish Government policies, historic
atrocities, and brutal persecution, today Christians constitute
less than one percent of Turkey's population.
(11) As a result of the Turkish Government's invasion of
the northern area of the Republic of Cyprus on July 20, 1974,
and the Turkish military's continued illegal and discriminatory
occupation of portions of this sovereign state, the future and
very existence of Greek Cypriot, Maronite, and Armenian
communities are now in grave jeopardy.
(12) Under the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus,
freedom of worship has been severely restricted, access to
religious sites blocked, religious sites systematically
destroyed, and a large number of religious and archaeological
objects illegally confiscated or stolen.
(13) The United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom, in its 2012 annual report, criticized ``the
Turkish government's systematic and egregious limitations on
the freedom of religion'', and warned that ``[l]ongstanding
policies continue to threaten the survivability and viability
of minority religious communities in Turkey''.
(14) Christian minorities in Turkey continue to face
discrimination, prohibitions on the training and succession of
clergy, and violent attacks, which have at times resulted in
lenient sentencing, including the reduced sentence for the
murderer of the Catholic Church's head bishop in Turkey, Luigi
Padovese, in June 2010, or delayed justice, including the
unresolved torture and murder, in April 2007, of three
employees of a Protestant Bible publishing house in Malatya,
Turkey.
(15) The Government of Turkey, in contravention of its
international legal obligations, refuses to recognize the
2,000-year-old Sacred See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's
international status, has confiscated the large majority of the
assets and properties of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Greek
cultural and educational foundations, maintains that candidates
for the position of Ecumenical Patriarch must be Turkish
citizens, and continues to refuse to reopen the Theological
School at Halki, thus impeding training and succession for the
Greek Orthodox clergy in Turkey.
(16) The Government of Turkey, in contravention of its
international legal obligations, continues to place substantial
restrictions and other limitations upon the Armenian
Patriarchate's right to train and educate clergy and select and
install successors without government interference.
(17) Religious freedom is an essential cornerstone of
democracy that promotes respect for individual liberty, which
contributes to greater stability, and is therefore a priority
value for the United States to promote in its engagement with
other countries.
SEC. 3. REPORT REQUIREMENTS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act and annually thereafter until 2021, the Secretary
of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House
of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate
a report on the status and return of stolen, confiscated, or otherwise
unreturned Christian churches, places of worship, and other properties
in or from the Republic of Turkey and in the areas of northern Cyprus
occupied by the Turkish military that shall contain the following:
(1) A comprehensive listing of all the Christian churches,
places of worship, and other properties, such as monasteries,
schools, hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other
religious properties, including movable properties, such as
artwork, manuscripts, vestments, vessels, and other artifacts,
in or from Turkey and in the territories of the Republic of
Cyprus under military occupation by Turkey that are claimed as
stolen, confiscated, or otherwise wrongfully removed from the
ownership of their rightful Christian church owners.
(2) Description of all engagement over the previous year on
this issue by officials of the Department of State with
representatives of the Republic of Turkey regarding the return
to their rightful owners of all Christian churches, places of
worship, and other properties, such as monasteries, schools,
hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other religious
properties, including movable properties, such as artwork,
manuscripts, vestments, vessels, and other artifacts, both
those located within Turkey's borders and those under control
of Turkish military forces in the occupied northern areas of
Cyprus.
(b) Inclusion in Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
and International Religious Freedom Report.--The information required
under subsection (a) shall be summarized in the annual Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices and International Religious Freedom Reports.
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